A former accountant for a Minneapolis homeless shelter who used his position to steal the identities of hundreds of people — including some who donated to the shelter — will have to pay hundreds of thousands in restitution and spend years in prison, authorities say.
A Washington County judge recently ordered Hai Jay Phu Vu, 54, to pay nearly $800,000 in restitution to the victims of his scheme, according to the Washington County attorney’s office.
The order comes five months after the Woodbury man pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft involving eight or more victims and a second count for falsely representing his need for unemployment benefits, court documents say.
He was sentenced in September to 6.5 years in prison.
Through his accounting job at House of Charity, Vu used personal information from donors, including bank routing and account numbers, to pay his credit card bills and other expenses, such as his daughter’s tuition at a private school.
Vu worked for the shelter from July 2014 to February 2017, when he was fired because of disciplinary issues and received two months’ salary and benefits. When he applied for unemployment benefits, he indicated he had been laid off and had not received severance. He was paid about $11,400 in unemployment benefits to which he was not entitled, authorities say.
In October 2014, Vu was convicted of theft in Washington County and sentenced to five years of probation. In a separate case a month earlier, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor check forgery.